ALCS Notebook: Chris Sale admitted to hospital with illness, Nathan Eovaldi is Game 3 starter

The Red Sox announced during Game 2 ace Chris Sale reported to the stadium on Sunday with a stomach illness, and was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital for observation. Sale was going to be kept overnight for evaluation.

Alex Cora said he didn't have much to add.

"He was feeling bad, and he's at the hospital," Cora said. "From what I know, it's nothing serious. But obviously, whenever you have to go to the hospital you've got to be worried. But he should be fine. Hopefully, we get news in the upcoming hours and he'll join us in Houston."

Cora said Sale's illness came after Game 1 and didn't factor into his uncharacteristically wild performance (86 pitches, 56 strikes, four walks, one hit batter in just four innings).

"No, no, he started feeling bad after the game," Cora said.

Nathan Eovaldi, who allowed one run in seven innings during his Game 3 win over the Yankees in the ALDS, will start Game 3. Rick Porcello, who tossed a scoreless inning in relief on Sunday night, is expected to start Game 4. That would put Sale in line to start again in Game 5 on Thursday in Houston.

The Betts 'bomb' goes off: Astros manager A.J. Hinch said his team viewed Mookie Betts as a "ticking time bomb" with a slow start to the series. Well, it went off in Game 2, as Betts went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs. Not coincidentally, the Red Sox' offense finally got going (seven runs, nine hits) when its lead-off hitter jump-started things.

"A.J. is a smart guy. He went to Stanford," Cora joked. "Like he said, (Betts) got a pitch middle-middle and just rolled over with the bases loaded. Tonight, he was able to stay in the middle of the ballpark and it was good. He walked against (Lance) McCullers, ran the bases well. And I saw him smiling today, which is always good. When Mookie's smiling, good things are happening."

Said Betts: "It is what it is. I just go out and do what I can to help the team win, try and be consistent in having some good at-bats and getting some timely hits and whatnot. But it's not just me. We've got 25 guys out here to win."

Hinch said before the game the Astros' approach with Betts was to get him out of the box as soon as possible with as little damage. It didn't work in Game 2.

"He ignited them from the very beginning of the game," Hinch said. "This place, the energy of this place when he comes up to bat is really electrifying. You try to minimize as much as you can in front of them, we didn't do a great job of that today. But from the first at-bat on, he set the tone from the very beginning. That's why he's very much an MVP ... at least (a) candidate."

Betts was part of a sequence you see a lot in Little League, but not in the majors: a walk that leads to a run without a hit. He led off the seventh with a walk against McCullers, advanced to second on a wild pitch, third on a passed ball to catcher Martin Maldonado, and then scored on another passed ball.

"He went around the bases and didn't have to put a ball in play," Hinch said of Betts. "Those are tough in this type of series, these types of games. It's a little uncharacteristic. Obviously, I brought McCullers in to try to keep it a one-run game with the way that this series can go. It's almost like a tie game for me. So Lance threw a couple of nasty breaking balls. Looked like Martin either lost it in the people in center field or just got a little bit ... I don't want to say lax back there, but just had a tough time. And Mookie went around the bases, first the walk and then no ball in play and ends up scoring."